The court issued the verdict in the case against eight people after an eight-month trial on Sunday, Al-Madinah daily reported on Monday.
One of the defendants had fled the country to escape legal actions. The court let free some of the accused on the ground that they had suffered enough during the period of detention since their arrest.
The Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB) had taken over the case after the departmental investigations confirmed the suspects’ involvement in the allegations.
A director of the education department in Madinah, the prime accused in the case, was indicted for exploiting his official position and demanding SR600,000 bribe for awarding contracts for projects in his department.
On the other hand, some of the defendants were accused of offering bribes to the first defendant to provide them vital information related to the projects, so that their bids would not be rejected. One of the officials was accused of establishing a contracting company in collaboration with others and competing for the contract works of the department.
The corrupt officials also confessed they used to make final payments to contractors even before the completion of works.
The CIB had demanded the court that the culprits be punished with imprisonment of not more than 10 years and fines not more than SR1 million, as their crimes came under the first, fourth and 10th clauses of penal regulations governing conduct of public servants.
The CIB also pointed out that a government official who practiced private business or any other work for personal profit without administrative permission deserved a fine of not less than SR1,000 and not exceeding SR10,000. Another clause of the regulations stipulated that government officials and their accomplices who exploited their official position for illegal personal gains should be given a punishment of not more than 10 years prison.
